Now he was talking about a four-year-old pug who slept on the bed and growled at his owner whenever she rolled over during the night. I was waiting to hear him suggest the owner sleep with liver in her hands when I heard Cathy instead.
“How tragic,” Cathy said. For a moment I was confused. I thought she must be talking about Rick’s consultation advice. But she wasn’t looking at the stage. It was apparently Martyn’s plight she found so tragic.
Tragic? Maybe we were listening to different conversations. All I heard was a guy trying to get laid.
It was working, too. You could have fried eggs on the look that passed between them.
Cathy leaned close and whispered something I couldn’t hear.
“Do you think so?” Martyn said, apparently astonished by whatever he’d heard.
Where were the Oscars when they were so richly deserved?
“I do,” she said.
I leaned back. Sitting that close to them, I was in danger of getting diabetes.
“We all so hate to punish our doggies,” Rick was saying.
Talk about diabetes.
“So what might you do about the dog who loves the sound of his own voice too much when he’s put out in the yard? Well, to be honest, you can help these behaviors disappear without giving a single correction. We behaviorists call this process extinction. When we simply ignore the behavior, its frequency diminishes, and eventually the unwanted behavior disappears altogether.” He smiled out at us. “And this way the dog will not think of you as a punisher.”
I heard applause. Dashiell lifted his head, but Freud did not. Then Beryl was on the stage, and hands were up all over the room. Beryl pointed to the owner of one of them.
“Why the great divide in dog training?” a young man in a green T-shirt asked. He must have been one of those rude New Yorkers you hear so much about, going right to the heart of the matter with no polite small talk to cushion the thrust of his question. “Why don’t the trainers who use food get along with—” Rick leaned toward one of the mikes, but he was too slow. “Because, dear man, some of us find it devastating to have the public taught that dogs are nothing but furry little garbage disposals rather than sentient, thinking beings.”
Half the audience laughed. The other half started grumbling. “And much as I detest having to disagree with my esteemed colleague, it is imperative that I point out to you professionals that barking is self-reinforcing, even at those times when it hasn’t just chased the postal person away. You cannot extinguish it by not reinforcing it, because the act itself gives the dog immense pleasure. You, my dear friends, are beside the point. The same, of course, is true with chewing problems. You can extinguish some bad habits by doing nothing. But why not do something? Why not take an active role in your dog’s education? ‘No’ is not a four-letter word, people. It’s merely one of the ways you can communicate annoyance, displeasure, or impending danger to your companion animal.”
Rick leaned toward his mike again, but clearly Beryl had no intention of relinquishing the floor.
“Moreover, you cannot discuss these issues logically, though heaven knows, that’s what people think they are doing. Instead, they are working off unconscious emotional needs set in childhood, using the dog to rewrite history, so that the owner with the cold parent becomes the indulgent good parent to his pet—”
Cathy got up. I slid down in my seat and tried to look as if I were completely absorbed in the Q & A session.
“So that they are both the parent and the child in this scenario, indulging and being indulged, the way we may be all the characters in our dreams.” She turned to Rick, finally giving him a chance to respond. But it was too late. He looked shell-shocked. Beryl had just given him a powerful demonstration of the effectiveness of negative reinforcement as well as the principle of alpha.
Beryl shrugged and pointed to a young
“How tragic,” Cathy said. For a moment I was confused. I thought she must be talking about Rick’s consultation advice. But she wasn’t looking at the stage. It was apparently Martyn’s plight she found so tragic.
Tragic? Maybe we were listening to different conversations. All I heard was a guy trying to get laid.
It was working, too. You could have fried eggs on the look that passed between them.
Cathy leaned close and whispered something I couldn’t hear.
“Do you think so?” Martyn said, apparently astonished by whatever he’d heard.
Where were the Oscars when they were so richly deserved?
“I do,” she said.
I leaned back. Sitting that close to them, I was in danger of getting diabetes.
“We all so hate to punish our doggies,” Rick was saying.
Talk about diabetes.
“So what might you do about the dog who loves the sound of his own voice too much when he’s put out in the yard? Well, to be honest, you can help these behaviors disappear without giving a single correction. We behaviorists call this process extinction. When we simply ignore the behavior, its frequency diminishes, and eventually the unwanted behavior disappears altogether.” He smiled out at us. “And this way the dog will not think of you as a punisher.”
I heard applause. Dashiell lifted his head, but Freud did not. Then Beryl was on the stage, and hands were up all over the room. Beryl pointed to the owner of one of them.
“Why the great divide in dog training?” a young man in a green T-shirt asked. He must have been one of those rude New Yorkers you hear so much about, going right to the heart of the matter with no polite small talk to cushion the thrust of his question. “Why don’t the trainers who use food get along with—” Rick leaned toward one of the mikes, but he was too slow. “Because, dear man, some of us find it devastating to have the public taught that dogs are nothing but furry little garbage disposals rather than sentient, thinking beings.”
Half the audience laughed. The other half started grumbling. “And much as I detest having to disagree with my esteemed colleague, it is imperative that I point out to you professionals that barking is self-reinforcing, even at those times when it hasn’t just chased the postal person away. You cannot extinguish it by not reinforcing it, because the act itself gives the dog immense pleasure. You, my dear friends, are beside the point. The same, of course, is true with chewing problems. You can extinguish some bad habits by doing nothing. But why not do something? Why not take an active role in your dog’s education? ‘No’ is not a four-letter word, people. It’s merely one of the ways you can communicate annoyance, displeasure, or impending danger to your companion animal.”
Rick leaned toward his mike again, but clearly Beryl had no intention of relinquishing the floor.
“Moreover, you cannot discuss these issues logically, though heaven knows, that’s what people think they are doing. Instead, they are working off unconscious emotional needs set in childhood, using the dog to rewrite history, so that the owner with the cold parent becomes the indulgent good parent to his pet—”
Cathy got up. I slid down in my seat and tried to look as if I were completely absorbed in the Q & A session.
“So that they are both the parent and the child in this scenario, indulging and being indulged, the way we may be all the characters in our dreams.” She turned to Rick, finally giving him a chance to respond. But it was too late. He looked shell-shocked. Beryl had just given him a powerful demonstration of the effectiveness of negative reinforcement as well as the principle of alpha.
Beryl shrugged and pointed to a young
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